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Setting Atmosphere

Posted by george on November 13, 2009
Posted in: Writing. Tagged: , , , , . 14 comments
The top of my bookcase

Over the weekend I was at home and the temperature had dipped below 30F.  I decided to fire up the ol’ woodstove.  I had some writing to accomplish and I like the ambiance of the fire.  I was on Twitter and did a little update about putting a fire on.  My friend Heather from Maternal Spark responded about how nice an atmosphere that creates.  Then, in response to a tweet I had done a little earlier asking for post ideas, she tweeted this:

twitter

Well, of course!  Great idea.

It really did get me thinking.  Short of putting a virtual fireplace and candelabras on your home page, how do you create an atmosphere on your blog?

We see posts all the time about blog design, where to put things and how many things to put there.  I think there may not be any true right or wrong answer.  I think it kind of depends on the blog, but there are come commonalities in setting up the right atmosphere on your blog.

For me, atmosphere = comfort.  When someone arrives at my blog, I would like them to feel like this is a place where they could kick off their shoes settle back for a bit and linger in the conversation.  In my mind, my blog does have a big fireplace with cedar and spruce crackling, popping and providing warmth.   There are leather wing-back chairs with just the right combo of plush and support.

A pot of tea is always fresh-brewed and a silver tray on the table has an ice bucket, crystal tumblers and a selection of spirits and an antique cherry bookcase holds volumes of writings worth reading.

These are the things I see in my mind.

In reality, I do try and make my blog a cozy place.  Not too much stuff going on, attractive to the eye and hopefully a minimal amount of noxious things like advertisements.

It’s safe to say that when I think of my blog, I think of my visitors.  Yes I am here to provide information.  Yes I would like to make some money from the advertising.  Of course!  But at the end of the day, I want folks to feel that when they come here, they’ve arrived home.  To a safe place.

How do you view your blog?  What kinds of things do you do to create the right atmosphere?  For that matter, what kind of atmosphere do you want to create?  Energized?  Inspiring?  Emotional?  Maybe an atmosphere to put folks in a buying mood?  It’s all good.   Create the atmosphere on your blog based on the audience you want to attract.  How could you go wrong?

Calm down, it’s only a book

Posted by george on August 13, 2009
Posted in: Writing. Tagged: , , , , . 17 comments

alt healthWorking in a library has given me a whole new perspective on books and writing.  Every day I’m surrounded by books.  There are shelves of them staring at me.  They stack up in the book drop.  They come to my check out counter.  They end up on my desk for mending.  The new ones wait for me to move them from “in process” to their new home on a shelf.

Sometimes, my head just spins.  Author after author.  Some so prolific they need a shelf all to themselves.  Others are one hit wonders.  I look at the titles and think that each one is the result of so much research, experience and creativity.  So many titles!

When I’m shelving the fiction books, I’m always amazed at the stories.  With such a vast array of authors and stories, it seeems that there would be no more stories to be told.

As I prepare new books to come into the world, I smile a little bit.  I research the bib information and see the author’s name and picture and I think, “Good on you, mate.”  For the non-fiction books I’m astounded every day at the subject ideas and the catchy titles.  And yes, I do a lot of, “Man, I wish I’d have thought of that.”

So here’s my point.  This blog is about writing.  I write about getting published.  I write about writing and the importance of passion and inspiration.  The common backdrop – even if unspoken – is the idea and thought of the Holy Grail:  Getting a book published.  For most aaspiring writers, the thought just makes us giddy.  We’ve put this worthy goal on a pedestal and each day we light incense, face Mecca and do a little hula dance, hoping an agent/editor/publisher will take heed.

Here’s my advice:  Calm down.  It’s only a book.

Oh, I know that is so very flippant.  Blood, sweat, tears poured into the darned thing.  Yeah, yeah, yeah.  I know.  But I think that we make such a big deal out of it that we can short circuit its fruition.  We get so jacked up about every detail, every nuance, that we can actually stifle the ability to make our dream come true.  We take short cuts, or maybe we spend so much time reading about how to get published that we never take the time to just think of it as a job that needs to get done.

When I see so many books coming through the doors of my library, I know there is room for mine.  I know that publishers are printing books.  I know that by doing my job as a writer it will come.

I’m reminded of a line from Star Wars where Han directs Chewbacca to fly past a Star Destroyer while keeping his distance.  “But don’t look like you’re keeping your distance.  I don’t know.  Fly casual.”

So how about you?  Are you willing to fly casual?

A side note.  I found out today that a very good friend of mine had her blogging site nominated as a Top 10 Writing blog.  Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen is the owner of Quips and Tips for Successful Writers and it i one of my fav writing sites.  Would you please consider going to http://www.writingwhitepapers.com/blog/2009/08/13/nominate-your-favorite-writing-blog-4th-annual-top-10-blogs-for-writers-contest/ and giving her a vote?  Thank you!

I think the Editor was asleep

Posted by george on July 7, 2009
Posted in: Writing. Tagged: , , , , , . 19 comments

I pulled this up from the archives today because there is some relevance and new info to discuss.  When I wrote this post back in October of last year, I blamed the editor.  I’ve learned a lot and after painfully working through yet another poorly written book, I’ve decided the blame does not belong to the editor.  Well, okay.  Maybe they have some of the ownership, but I think the whole darn publishing system is to blame – including the writer.

The book that prompted this latest rant was written by a relatively known writer with more than 30 novels under his belt.  I’ve not read anything else by the author so this one may be the exception, but somehow I don’t think so.  here’s the scoop:

  • He moves the entire story along though dialogue almost exclusively.  I don’t have a problem with that necessarily but I think a balance of narrative and dialogue works best.
  • His dialogue rings hollow and seems stilted and untrue.  I could overlook moving the story with just dialogue if the conversations had some kind of substance.  Part of the problem is that it makes any foreshadowing stick out like a sore thumb.

With that said, I’ll let you folks get back to the original post:

As a writer, I also read.  That’s what writers do.  I mean, besides the whole writing thing

I ordered up some books from the Mystery Guild Book Club to replenish my reading material for what should prove to be a long, cold, dark winter.  I chose the books based on little more than the one or two paragraph description.  I wasn’t familiar with most of the authors but I figured that was ok.  After a week or two, the ubiquitous pale orange parcel slip from my friends at the Post Office was hanging out in the ol’ mailbox.

I love books.  I’m always excited to see a new batch arrive.  I got this bunch home and spent a little bit of time reviewing the jackets and the first few pages, trying to decide which to delve into first.

With my first selection in hand, I cozied up in the chair and prepared my self for a good reading session.  At least, I thought it would be good.  I ground through the first dozen pages.  The story line was ok, but the writing style, well it sucked.  Much of the dialogue was done in sentence fragments.  Now, I think for dialogue that’s ok, because that’s how a lot of folks talk.  The problem is that it was peppered throughout the narrative as well.  And I don’t mean a light peppering either.  Darn near every paragraph had a non-sensicle fragment.

That’s cute and effective if used a few times throughout the book, but it was apparent in this case that it was part of the style.  Frankly, it did more than just irritate me.  It pissed me off.  How could an editor believe for an instant that this was acceptable for publication?  The style is so distracting that the story line is lost.

I’ve put the book up on the shelf and I have no intention of opening it again.

That got me thinking about social norms and book reading.  How many of you have slugged your way through the first chapter of a book and then just walked away?  I’ll bet most of you have.  Library books don’t count because you’ve no vested interest.    Now, how many of you have ever walked out of a movie theater ’cause it was terrible.  I’ll bet if you looked at the ratio, you’ve suffered through a lot more movies then you have books.

Why is that, I wonder?  Is it because it’s considered rude to walk out of a movie theater?  Maybe.  After all, ditching a book can be done under the cover of night, when no one is watching.

So that’s my query to you.  Do you book ditch?  If so, what makes you give up?

Oh, and I don’t want to slam the book I just tromped all over in public, but if you’d like the author/title then just comment or shoot the moose an email.  (I can’t believe I just wrote, “shoot the moose”)

Are you a writer or an author?

Posted by george on April 16, 2009
Posted in: Writing. Tagged: , , . 43 comments

cool-libraryAt the numerous cocktail parties I attend (hehe, yeah, right) I’m oft asked what I do for a living.  And though it still sounds a little funny passing my lips, my response is, “I’m a writer.”  Invariably the next question is, “What do you write?”  At which point I blather on about freelancing, blogs, web content, yadda-yadda-yadda.  Polite smiles all around, maybe a, “That’s nice.”  Soon followed by semi-hasty departures sung to the tune of, “I’m going to go find someone interesting to talk to.”

Consider for a moment what the conversation would be like if my initial response had been, “I’m an author.”  Wow.  That’s got a different ring to it.  It conjures up visions of secluded cabins, late night furious writing sessions, tweed sportcoats with supple leather elbow patches and straight stemmed pipes.

Dictionary.com sez:

Writer:

  1. a person engaged in writing books, articles, stories, etc., esp. as an occupation or profession
  2. a clerk, scribe, or the like
  3. a person who commits his or her thoughts, ideas, etc., to writing

Author:

  1. a person who writes a novel, poem, essay, etc.; the composer of a literary work, as distinguished from a compiler, translator, editor, or copyist
  2. the maker of anything; creator; originator
  3. the literary production or productions of a writer

The difference between the two is subtle, but it’s there.

In my mind, you are an author when you complete a project of non-fiction or fiction, package it and put it out for the world to see.  Technically, I guess using that philosophy you could say that when you complete a blog post you could call your self an author.  But is that genuine and accurate?  I don’t really think it is.  So let me shape the definition a bit more:  You are an author when you complete a book.  There, how’s that?  Does that sit a little better? Or does it kinda make you mad?

The point is that in the eyes of the general populous, a writer is different from an author and the two are on completely different levels.  I think that to some extent, it’s picking nits, but remember that (and I hate this, even though it’s true) reality is not what matters – it’s people’s perception of reality that is the ultimate criteria.

So if you write web content, and have two or three half finished novels in the works and you’ve entered a short story into a contest, would you feel comfortable calling yourself an author?  Put yourself into the cocktail party scenario.  Imagine giving the, “I’m an author” response.  How does that feel?  Would you handle any follow up questions any differently than you would if you said you were a writer?

I think this is a very interesting topic to consider.  I’m willing to bet that opinions on this are impassioned and varied.

Let the debate begin!

Ebooks: charge or give away

Posted by george on March 17, 2009
Posted in: Writing. Tagged: , , , , . 29 comments

There are a ton of ebooks out there these days.  Most of the sites I visit in my circle have at least one available.

My question is simple:  Do you charge anything for your ebook?

If so, how much do you charge?    On what criteria do you base that price? Is it the type of content?  Is it the number of pages?

Pros and Cons

Free Pros:

  • Greater exposure for the content of the ebook
  • Viewed as more community friendly (?)
  • Gain names and email addresses for mailing lists, etc…

Free Cons:

  • No $
  • No $
  • Content viewed as less valuable
  • It’s a lot of freakin’ work to put one of them bad bears together

Charge Pros:

  • The potential to make some money
  • If the ebook goes viral, then it could make a LOT of money
  • Content seen as valuable
  • Author/site credibility (?)

Charge Cons:

  • Less exposure for the content
  • Potential to drive away viewers
  • Once you charge, you’re locked in.  Even one sale precludes offering it for free

So this is the dilemma faced by ebook authors.

This post is not some lame attempt to drive comments or bring traffic.  I honestly need to know what people think because this is an issue for me right now.

If you’ve published an ebook, what was your thought process in this regard?